📊Key Updates on Pension Asset Allocation and Interest Assumptions
This final rule amends the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulation on Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans to prescribe the spreads component of the interest assumption under the asset allocation regulation for plans with valuation dates of October 31, 2025-January 30, 2026. These interest assumptions are used for valuing benefits under terminating single-employer plans and for other purposes.
Learn More⚙️Proposed Exemption for Union Equipment Loans Under ERISA
This proposed exemption would permit certain loans from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union 627 (Local 627) to the Plan, so the Plan can purchase heavy machinery to fulfill its mission. As described below, absent an exemption, the loans would violate certain prohibited transaction provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
Learn More🏢Proposed Exemption for Sale by Mid-America Carpenters Fund
This proposed exemption would permit the sale by the Fund of real property to the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council (the Sale). Without this exemption, the Sale would be prohibited by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
Learn More📜RBC Granted Regulatory Exemption Under ERISA and Internal Revenue Code
This document provides notice of an individual exemption from certain prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). This exemption permits certain qualified professional asset managers with specified relationships to Royal Bank of Canada Trust Company (Bahamas) Limited, and certain current and future affiliates of the Royal Bank of Canada (collectively, the RBC QPAMs), to continue to rely on the class exemptive relief granted in Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-14 (PTE 84-14 or the QPAM Exemption), notwithstanding the March 5, 2024 judgment of conviction against Royal Bank of Canada Trust Company (Bahamas) Limited (RBCTC Bahamas) for aiding and abetting tax fraud, entered in France in the Paris Court of Appeal.
Learn More⚖️Exemption Notice for Northern Trust Under ERISA Prohibited Transactions
This document provides notice of an individual exemption from certain prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). The exemption permits certain entities with specified relationships to Northern Trust Fiduciary Services (Guernsey) Limited (NTFS) (hereinafter, the Northern QPAMs, as further defined in Section I(e) of the operative language) to rely on the exemptive relief provided by Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 84-14 (PTE 84-14 or the QPAM Exemption), notwithstanding the judgment of conviction (the Conviction) against NTFS for aiding and abetting tax fraud entered in France in the Paris Court of Appeal, French Special Prosecutor No. 1120392066, French Investigative Judge No. JIRSIF/11/12.
Learn More💼Guidance on Pooled Employer Plans
This document contains limited interpretive guidance to help small employers select high-quality, low-cost "pooled employer plans" or "PEPs." This document also solicits information about prevailing pooled employer plan market practices. The Department will consider the responses as part of a process aimed at developing a potential regulatory safe harbor or safe harbors that comprehensively encourage market participants to offer and employers to join such plans. These efforts, taken pursuant to President Trump's January 20, 2025, Memorandum titled "Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis," are designed to reduce investment costs for workers saving for their retirement, thereby improving their lives. These efforts also will help small employers provide more attractive benefits to potential hires, drawing discouraged workers into the labor force.
Learn More📄DOL Notice on Annual Reporting for Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements
The Department of Labor (DOL) is submitting this Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)-sponsored information collection request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). Public comments on the ICR are invited.
Learn More🏥ERISA Exemption for Meta's Employee Benefit Plan Announced
This document provides notice of an individual exemption from certain prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The exemption permits Prudential Life Insurance Company of America (Prudential) to reinsure the Meta Platforms Inc. Health and Welfare Benefit Plan (Plan)'s group term life insurance benefits, accidental death and dismemberment benefits, survivor income benefits, supplemental employee term coverage, dependent term life insurance (spouse or domestic partner), dependent term life insurance (children) (the Reinsured Benefits), by entering into a reinsurance contract with Ekahi Insurance Company, LLC (Ekahi), an insurance company that is owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. (Meta or the Applicant). This arrangement is hereinafter referred to as the "Reinsurance Arrangement."
Learn More📜DOL Finalizes Removal of Obsolete Insurance Regulation
This DFR removes 29 CFR 2550.401c-1 from the Code of Federal Regulations, which the Department of Labor (DOL) believes is obsolete. The regulation applies only to certain insurance policies or contracts issued to (or on behalf of) employee benefit plans on or before December 31, 1998. Given the unlikelihood that any of these policies or contracts remain in effect, the DOL believes the regulation is no longer needed and, if left on the books, could add confusion and unnecessary complexity. Removing obsolete regulations eliminates the burden on the public of having to determine whether they need to comply with the regulations. This action is being taken pursuant to Executive Order 14192, titled Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.\1\ This action improves the daily lives of the American people by reducing unnecessary, burdensome, and costly Federal regulations. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn More📉Removal of Annuity Provider Regulation
This direct final rule (DFR) removes 29 CFR 2550.404a-4 from the Code of Federal Regulations, which is a regulation published in 2008 that provides a fiduciary safe harbor for the selection of annuity providers for the purpose of benefit distributions from individual account retirement plans covered by title I of the Employee Retirement Income Act of 1974 (ERISA). The regulatory safe harbor became unnecessary in 2019 when Congress amended ERISA to add a more streamlined fiduciary safe harbor covering the same activity. Although the statutory safe harbor did not technically nullify or repeal the regulatory safe harbor, its existence offers an unnecessary and inefficient alternative and may inadvertently be a trap for the unwary. This action improves the daily lives of the American people by reducing unnecessary, burdensome, and costly Federal regulations.
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